1. Was it the proud full sail of his great verse,
2. Bound for the prize of all too precious you,
3. That did my ripe thoughts in my brain inhearse,
4. Making their tomb the womb wherein they grew?
5. Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write
6. Above a mortal pitch, that struck me dead?
7. No, neither he, nor his compeers by night
8. Giving him aid, my verse astonished.
9. He, nor that affable familiar ghost
10. Which nightly gulls him with intelligence,
11. As victors of my silence cannot boast;
12. I was not sick of any fear from thence:
13. But when your countenance filled up his line,
14. Then lacked I matter; that enfeebled mine.

This is
the last of the group of sonnets dealing
with the threat of a rival poet taking over the dominant position of
affection
that the writer claims to enjoy in the beloved's eyes. The rival poet
here
is given the credit of composing bombastic verse which conceivably
could
cow other poets into submission, rather like a fleet in full sail (the
armada?)
bearing down on a seemingly defenceless enemy. The image may be taken
either
way, as one of splendour and magnificence, or one of empty boast and
hollow
show which leads to failure. Specific details are then given of how the
rival poet relies on supernatural help from voices and spirits which
communicate
with him by night, and ghostly figures which prompt him. It is
difficult
not to read an undertone of ridicule into this description, for
Shakespeare's
attitude to his own versification is often very pedestrian and matter
of
fact. He disingenuously admits the superiority of his rival's verses,
at
the same time undermining that superiority by writing a sonnet which is
as good as that of any of his contemporaries.

THE 1609
QUARTO VERSION

86

VV

As it the proud
full ſaile
of his great verſe,
Bound for the prize of (all to precious ) you,

That
did my ripe thoughts in
my braine inhearce,
Making their tombe the wombe wherein they grew?
Was it his ſpirit,by ſpirits taught to write,
Aboue a mortall pitch,that ſtruck me dead ?
No,neither he,nor his compiers by night
Giuing him ayde,my verſe aſtoniſhed.
He nor that affable familiar ghoſt
Which nightly gulls him with intelligence,
As victors of my ſilence cannot boaſt,
I was not ſick of any feare from thence.
But when your countinance fild vp his line,
Then lackt I matter,that infeebled mine.

This sonnet however
seems to bring us far closer
to the identity of a possible rival than any of the preceding ones.
Many
commentators think that the affable familiar ghost and the compeers by
night
point directly at George Chapman, translator of the Iliad, a
translation
much admired by Keats who
wrote a sonnet in praise of it.

Lines 5-10 especially
seem to refer to a particular
poet, rather than to potential rivals in general. The difficulty of
making
a certain identification stems largely from the absence of concrete
information
on three essential points. a). The date of composition of any of the
sonnets,
including the rival poets' sequence. b). The identity of the youth to
whom
the sonnets are addressed. c). The disappearance of the poems which
supposedly
were written as rival poems and were accepted as offerings by the
youth,
to the detriment of the writer of these sonnets.

In the absence of
this information, which, short
of miraculous discoveries, is not likely now to come to light, it is
probably
best to leave the identity of the rival poet in decent obscurity.

1. Was it the proud full
sail of his great verse,

Portrait of
George Chapman in 1616, at
the age of 57.

1. The
image is that of a galleon (or possibly
a whole fleet, see below), attempting to capture something on the high
seas.
In 1596 Essex had raided the Spanish port of Cadiz, captured it and
carried
off much booty. Such exploits were widely renowned, and other grandiose
expeditions, such as one to the Azores the following year, in the hope
of
capturing the Spanish treasure fleet, would have caused a great stir of
excitement as they set off from the Channel ports in proud full sail,
with
one hundred or more ships often taking part. GBE sees the reference as
possibly
a denigrating one, in that it has mercenary overtones, but the glory
accruing
to any privateer or bucaneer who damaged Spanish interests in the years
after the armada was huge. The Queen herself was usually a shareholder
in
such expeditions, and they were launched with semi-official blessing.

proud full
sail
- a swelling sail, puffed out by the wind. proud
and full also
have sexual meanings. In Midsummer Nights Dream Shakespeare likened a
bellying
sail to a pregnant woman.
When we have laughed to see the sails conceive
And grow big bellied with the wanton wind. MND.II.1.128-9.
However sail
could also stand for the whole fleet, (OED.4.a.)a sight and spectacle
which
would be far more majestic than the appearance of a single galleon Thus
in King John: So by a roaring tempest on the flood
A whole Armado of convicted sail
Is scattered and disjoined from fellowship.KJ.III.4.2-4

The whole sonnet was
possibly read on suitable
occasions with ribald innuendos, an underlying set of double
entendres
(spirit, pitch, countenance, line, matter etc.) being available which
efface
its seriousness. This line for example, with a little twisting, could
be
read as
Was it the proud full sail of his great arse? etc.
See also SB, additional notes, p.579, n.16.9.

2. Bound for the prize of
all too precious you,

2.
Bound for = heading for;
the prize = the technical meaning of a ship or goods captured
at sea
is the predominant sense here. OED(3)2.b. cites for 1588: Greene
Perimedes
9 'Carrying away, both vessell and marriners as a pryse'.

3. That did my ripe
thoughts in my brain inhearse,

3.
ripe thoughts - presumably thoughts
which are ready to be put into a poem.
inhearse = enclose in a tomb or coffin.

4. Making their tomb the
womb wherein they grew?

4.
In other words, they (his thoughts) die where
they are engendered, in the womb of his brain. The image of thoughts as
the poet's children was commonplace, although this idea of a
miscarriage
was somewhat rarer.

5. Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write

5.
These lines. 5-10 are thought to refer to
one particular poet, quite possibly George Chapman. He published seven
books
of his translation of Homer's Iliad in 1598, and boasted subsequently
that
he was inspired by the spirit of Homer himself. 'I am (sayd hee [Homer]
that spirit Elysian,/ That ... did thy bosome
fill'. See GBE pp.193-4
for fuller details. The evidence is not conclusive, and it is quite
possible,
given the incomplete state of our knowledge, that another poet was
intended.
(See the comment above alongside the 1609 text). by spirits - the ghosts which prompted his
imagination (spirit) and
caused him to write.

6. Above a mortal pitch, that struck me dead?

6. Above
a mortal pitch = higher than
the normal flight of human fancy. The imagery is probably taken from
falconry,
the pitch being the topmost point of flight of the falcon before
stooping.
As in the following:
Between two Hawks, which flies the higher pitch.1H6.II.4.11.

But what a
point, my lord, your falcon made,
And what a pitch she flew above the rest!
2H6.II.1.5-6.

7. No, neither he, nor his compeers by night

7.
his compeers by night - the spirits
which aid him in his composition. compeer is an old
word meaning
a companion of equal standing. Here it is used somewhat contemptuously.
If Chapman is the rival poet, the spirits or ghosts which appeared to
him
in nightly visions were Musaeus, Marlowe and Homer. Chapman claimed a
special
affinity with the night in his poem The Shadow of Night
published
in 1594. He therefore is one of the chief contenders of all those put
forward
for the title of the rival poet.

8. Giving him aid, my verse
astonished.

8.
astonished = struck dumb. Pronounced
astonishèd.

9. He, nor that affable familiar ghost

9.
He, nor = neither he, nor. Repeating
the statement of line 7.
affable familiar ghost - the rival poet evidently claimed
that the spirit
that appeared to him was friendly (affable). familiar
was a term
which was applied to spirits, often those associated with the devil.
Witches
were supposed to have dealings with them, their familiars often taking
the
form of a cat. The use of the term here attaches to the person being
referred
to the dubious distinction of probably being in touch with the devil.
(See
OED.A.2.d & B.3)

10. Which nightly gulls him
with intelligence,

10.
nightly - evidently the familiar
spirit appeared to the rival poet in the hours of darkness.
gulls him = dupes and decieves him. Possibly also 'stuffs him
full,
crams him. intelligence = information, knowledge.

11. As victors of my
silence cannot boast;

11.
As victors of my silence = As victors
who are responsible for silencing me.
cannot boast - the subject is he, (the rival poet), and his
'affable,
familiar ghost'. They cannot boast themselves to be the victors who
forced
me to silence.

12. I was not sick of any
fear from thence:

12.
sick = ill, unable to write.
from thence = from him and his spiritual assistants.

13. But when your countenance filled up his
line,

13. countenance
= face, appearance,
descriptions of you. As with all words beginning with 'count' there is
a
potential for bawdy innuendo which Shakespeare was usually not slow to
make
use of. In All's Well for example, the clown puns on duke
and constable.

COUNTESS Have
you, I say, an answer of such
fitness for all
questions? CLOWN From below your duke to beneath your
constable, it will fit
any question. AWW.II.2.27-30.

His reply might be
paraphrased as 'From below your
dick to beneath your cunt's table'. The irrelevance of the pun to the
matter
in hand does not usually count for much, as long as the pun is made. On
the stage it would no doubt usually be accompanied by a suitably
obscene
gesture. It is hardly possible to guess what the pun would have meant
here,
only that it was lewd, since line could be
interpreted as 'loin'
or 'loins'.

14. Then lacked I matter;
that enfeebled mine.

14.
matter = subject matter for my sonnets
(since you had abandoned me in favour of the rival poet's verse).
that enfeebled mine - that (your absence) was what weakened
my verse,
and made it unable to stand. No doubt a bawdy meaning also intended
here.